Local ITV news has taken an interest in our Broadband Ultrafast Fibre speed issues in the Stoneshill/Coppice Lane and surrounding area.
ITV did a report on the impact to local residents of slow internet connection in rural areas; the report went live on the ITV 6 o’clock local news on Tuesday 30th March.
Here, in a valley north of Sandford village, we have a very poor broadband speed which BT Openreach , in their response to an enquiry from our local MP, Mel Stride, acknowledge varies between 1.5 and 2.6 Mbps.
Despite an unannounced rollout of Ultrafast Fibre cable, just 250 metres away from the first house of our cluster and at most 1000 metres away, they have failed to bring the cable to us, about 30 dwellings. BT Openreach have still not recognised this recent installation to us nor to other properties actually directly passed by this cable, and are only quoting for a bespoke service having to be provided from Crediton exchange at the cost of at least £23,000 excl VAT.
ITV reporter Derek Johnson contacted us to see what impact slow broadband has on our daily lives.
In more remote rural locations we need decent speed broadband for many reasons.
• School-aged children have to study and do their homework online.
• Remote working.
• Local businesses and particularly farms.
• Families and grand-parents making video-calls with their relatives and friends.
• Elderly and disabled people who need to make sure emergency calls can get through.
• Video streaming TV and music programs (Netflix, BBC IPlayer), video gaming.
• Downloading and uploading files and photos.
• Online shopping, speaking to the doctor, indeed most of the things people usually use broadband for, especially now in the light of Covid-19 and social distancing.
Openreach and BT Consumer’s response to ITV suggested that the existing broadband service to the valley is “too good to qualify for free upgrade” which is nonsensical and we as residents feel is insulting. Of course to make matters even worse we have no mobile signal either!
This just makes us all the more determined to make our case and achieve a similar service to everyone else.
2021-04-01